Daily Scoop: Paletas and Raspados at Pachanga Patterson in Astoria

Editor's Note: July is Ice Cream Month on Serious Eats: New York! To celebrate, we're spotlighting a scoop we love every day.

Passion fruit and chocolate paletas. [Photographs: Max Falkowitz]

Icy treats are the dessert order of the day at Pachanga Patterson, where chef Michelle Vido takes liberties with traditional paletas for flavors like Roasted Banana & Peanut, Watermelon Mojito, and Blackberry & Sour Cream ($4 each). But our clear favorite is the Passion Fruit, Strawberry, & Coconut Milk, an impressively bright, tart popsicle that tastes unmistakably of passion fruit. Coconut and some dairy add nutty richness, but this is a summer refresher to the core. Ibarra Chocolate comes a close second, augmented with serious heat from ancho chili powder and the bitter crunch of cocoa nibs. It's the frozen edition of a Mexican hot chocolate where the flavors sing in balance.

Raspados ($3), Mexican shaved ices, are scooped to order. Mango is rich and dense, with coarse crystals and an intense mango flavor that only gets stronger as the raspado begins to melt. It's a scoop for serious heat lovers: the Thai bird chilies in the mix aren't messing around, and they'd be overwhelming in a less mango-intensive dessert. As is, they just send you back for spoonful after spoonful.

The paletas and respados are regular features of the dessert menu, but you can also order them at the front of the restaurant to eat on the go.

More

As a native of Queens, New York, Max developed an early hunger for dosas, dumplings, and Korean barbecue. Now he explores the city's evolving international food world by day and night. When not slurping noodles over a rickety table, he's in the kitchen tinkering with his ice cream maker on a never-ending quest to develop the best ice cream-making techniques.

ADD A COMMENT

PREVIEW YOUR COMMENT

HTML Hints

Comment Guidelines

Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more in the Comment Policy section of our Terms of Use page.